Audioholic Media

Shani Shousterman doesn’t have a structured business model, but she’s certainly on the right track. “I don’t plan everything out, part-by-part. I just kinda go with the flow, but I do have a vision and a mindset. I really hope it works, and I think it will. If it doesn’t, then I’ll move onto another strategy. You try something else.” After an hour-long conversation with her about her career and the music industry, it became very clear that Shani knows exactly what she’s doing–even if she doesn’t know that she knows.

Currently in the midst of booking her spring tour with fellow singer-songwriter Amanda Holmes, Shani will be touring the Left Coast for the second time in two years. In an effort to procure a better understanding of what it means to be a touring musician during the record industry’s re-invention of itself, Shani and Amanda have agreed to let Audioholic Media follow their expedition. We can only accompany them in spirit, but we promise to try to make it as voyeuristic and creepy as it would be if we were following them person.

Audioholic Media: You’re building your career by yourself, from the ground up. Have you gotten any advice that has helped you figure out how to go about it all?

Shani Shousterman: I guess I’m fortunate enough to observe how other musicians are doing it out there and figure out what might work for me. I’ve gone to shows, and talked to friends and people have come to talk to us at school and they all have the same advice. You tell them what you’re doing and they’re like, “You know what? That’s what you should be doing. Keep putting yourself out there and trying every sort of possible way to discover that one thing that no one else has found yet, and run with it.”

AM: With the industry in the weird limbo it’s in right now, is your primary objective to sign with a label?

SS: Not necessarily. My passion for music is something that I can’t really describe. There’s this exhilarating feeling I get when I write a song. Sometimes, its like, “Damn. I’ve got something here; I need play it for someone.” I don’t mean this in a pretentious way at all, but getting that feeling is so rewarding that makes me just want to perform for people over and over again. My hope is that somebody out there is gonna hear it and it’s gonna affect them positively in some way. I’ve had people come up to me sometimes and say, “I really understand what your saying in this lyric,” or “I can totally relate to you on this.” Its these comments that make every moment of writing music worth it, and I hope those instances will happen more often in the future of my career. Of course there’s also the element of me, personally, wanting to be satisfied with what I’m producing as an artist. So to answer your question, I don’t need to be on a label right now; its definitely not the end-all be-all. I think musicians are starting to be recognized a lot in music placement in television and movies. If I could get my songs placed as a start, I’d be thrilled. And, if I could develop my fan base, and tour, and have people love my music for the sake of loving my music, then that’s worth it to me. I don’t want to be famous for the sake of being famous. I feel like the famous part is an afterthought for me. That’s not my goal, that’s not my ambition. Regardless of whether I was famous or not, I’d wanna make music.

AM: I think my favorite song featured on your MySpace player is “Genuine Smile (Chiyuch Amiti).” Is it in Hebrew?

SS: Yeah, it is in Hebrew. My dad’s side of the family’s from Israel and we went there for my grandfather’s 80th birthday. My family threw him a huge party and of course expected me to come up with some insanely amazing birthday present for 80-year-old grandfather. It was something like, “Well, what in the world do you get your grandfather? He probably already has everything you were thinking of getting him.” So I decided I’d write a song and dedicate to him for his birthday.

I had to sit down with my cousins and actually work out the Hebrew a little. I do speak Hebrew but lyric-wise, it’s really different than English. Our concepts, like metaphor, personification, and poetry, are expressed differently there. But I wrote the lyrics first and kind of envisioned the melody and the chords in my head—something I’d actually never done before. It turned out really well, though. I sat down at the piano and in like twenty minutes and it was done.

I performed it at his party, where it was a little nerve-wracking because everyone was practically hovering over the piano, and I’d never performed in anything in a different language before. But he loved it so much he cried. Great birthday present, huh?

AM: You’re also a DJ for your campus radio station. Has that given you any insight regarding the music industry?

SS: More than I ever expected. It’s been very beneficial as a musician, to be on the other side of the spectrum. Having my show every week forces me to find music that’s out there, waiting to be discovered. Also, I love the fact that I get to promote new talent because they’re doing the same thing I’m trying to do, and I want them all to succeed. When I discover [new music], I start listening to it, too, and that helps me become a better musician. It influences me in so many ways, whether I realize it or not. [Being a DJ] makes me excited about music over and over again and helps me remember why I can’t live without it.

AM: Do you have a lot of new music of your own coming out? How is the writing process going for you?

SS: I do! Hopefully soon I’ll record it. [laughs] I’m working on writing every day. The more I write, the easier it is to for everything to flow. I realize there’s so much out there to write about, and I think that the more you write—even if it might suck—the more inspiration will strike and you’ll come up with the great stuff more often. If you keep waiting for that inspiration to come–what if it doesn’t come for a year? A year and a half? What’re you gonna do until then? Songwriting has been one of my top priorities in the past year and I’ve written plenty of songs–there’s a couple that I don’t like and might not dig up again— but there’s a lot of them that I’m like, “Wow, I would really like to perform this for people.” Sometimes its hard for me to decide how to put my set lists together cause I just want to play everything. Right now, I’ve got a whole new batch of stuff that I’m piecing together and am stoked to share with everyone when I go on my tour. Hopefully some will find their way onto the demo I hope to produce for the tour.

AM: What’s it like for you, building an entire tour in such a grassroots way?

SS: It’s honestly one of the most valuable experiences a musician at this stage of her career can have. It’s all hands on, dirty work. And the best and worst part of it is that Amanda and I are doing all of it. That means doing the research on venues, picking up the phone and talking to people from all walks of life, and being really annoying just to get a gig at a coffeehouse somewhere in central California. Not only that, but this time around–we did a tour last summer as well–we’ll be going up into Oregon, and spending more time on the road. We’re looking for sponsors and experimenting with other ways in advertising and promoting ourselves.

So yes, it’s a hell of a lot of work, but so worth it. I have learned so much from my experience so far that it is hard to put it in words. I believe you only know how things like this work when you do it yourself.

My experience last year far exceeded anything I had ever imagined. We were received extremely well and had some wonderful and incredibly funny times. Whether it be losing our keyboard cable on the way, locking ourselves out of our car half hour before a gig, or getting food poisoning, everything enriched our experience and made me feel like I had nothing in the world to ever lose.

This time around we know what we’re doing a little more, and hopefully that will benefit our tour. But the bottom line is that Amanda and I are laboring over this because we love it. We love creating music and sharing that with people. Plus, what better way to start our summer vacation than road tripping it on an adventure?

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For more information on Shani Shousterman, visit her official MySpace page.